Voice of Real Australia is a regular newsletter from the local news teams of the ACM network, which stretches into every state and territory. Today's is written by Stock Journal editor Elizabeth Anderson.
I had a dark moment when I opened my fridge the other day.
The day before I had been at an event where I heard from chief executive officer of End Food Waste Australia Steve Lapidge about just how much food is lost or wasted in Australia each year.
In the immortal words of Taylor Swift, "it's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me".
We're all part of the problem
I picked out the three packets of spinach with dregs still left, and the carrot I definitely meant to cook before I worked late a few too many nights and it went limp.
Looking at my fridge, I certainly need to take some responsibility but I am definitely not alone.
Australian consumers are particularly bad for this, from all accounts, with an estimated 150 kilograms of food thrown out per person each year.
"Even with cost of living, we are one of the cheapest countries in the world, per income, so they might not necessarily care about cost of food waste in fridge," Dr Lapidge said.
And all up, all along the food chain, 7.6 million tonnes of food is lost or wasted each year, contributing 3.5 per cent to our greenhouse gas emissions.
Meanwhile an estimated one in five people go hungry.
But there is good news - surveys have shown that people (myself included) want to change.
EFWA found 76 per cent of people want to reduce waste and 91 per cent of consumers want to buy from organisations that are taking steps to minimise their waste.
What can we do?
In the coming months, EFWA will be kicking off a campaign, aimed at helping consumers manage their waste better, including some key tools.
In the meantime, Dr Lapidge said there are some key behaviours we can all adopt.
We can shop with a list and store food properly; check if your fridge is at the right temperature - apparently a surprising number are not 4 degrees; cooking the right amount for the people who need to be served; and eat the leftovers.
The benefit of this is, these are the same steps that can help save money at the checkout - win-win.
There is also value in making the most of your green waste bin, if you have one, as this avoids any unavoidable food waste also becoming landfill.
Elizabeth Anderson
Editor of Stock Journal.
Editor of Stock Journal.
